Thanks to the efforts of Malcolm and his team of trainers CARC have helped several newcomers in gaining their Foundation and Intermediate licences over the winter months, my son Matt being one of them.
Amateur radio is a very wide hobby with plenty of fascinating aspects to choice from. An area that has always intrigued me is VHF/UHF propagation and DX. In common with most amateurs I lack the perfect QTH both in terms of height and space in which to erect antennas. The XYL might not be too impressed with a 60' versa-tower appearing in the garden!
One of the benefits of belonging to an active club such as CARC is access to shared equipment both at the club and for events such as VHF NFD. New members might not realise but in addition to the large tower at CARC we also own two trailer towers for "portable" use. One is nearly 100' tall raised using a power winch.
Each year we join forces with our friends at RATS, the Reigate Amateur Transmitting Society to take part in the RSGB's biggest annual VHF/UHF contest, National Field Day.
More so even than with HF, one of the most important factors in a successful entry is Location. In past years we have been fortunate to use a site on top of the cliff behind Folkestone in Kent. This site benefits from a fantastic views across the channel to France and provides an excellent radio path to Europe. Typically we will expect to work stations as far away as Spain, Austria, Switzerland and sometimes even Poland and Scandinavia. This under normal VHF conditions over 24 hours.
Unfortunately the site has a few draw backs. It can of course be quite windy being on top of a cliff next to the English channel. This can be interesting at best and even hairy when erecting and lowering large amounts of aluminium. Being close to Folkestone and the channel tunnel rail terminal it can also be a little noisy in RF terms. This is most undesirable. The site is a long narrow strip of pasture between the slope and a minor road giving some problems when selecting sites for the four stations we need to operate. While we have an excellent 'view' to Europe, the path up the UK is less good and with the majority of activity over the weekend being from the UK we could do better in this respect. The site has few close neighbours with two notable exceptions. Ironically our closest resident amateur is G0BPS, a leading light in the GQRP club! Needless to say we do not run QRP but full legal limit on all bands. In 2010 we were surprised by the appearance in an adjacent field of the Maidstone Radio Club also entering NFD. It is an unfortunate fact that two high powered stations on the same band cannot hope to operate in such close proximity at anything like full performance. Maidstone ARS are fortunate to have purchased the plot of land adjacent to the Battle of Britain Memorial in Capel le Ferne and are planning to enter NFD from there again this year. We wish them well and cannot help but be jealous of their good fortune in having such a great site permanently at their disposal.
Now even with all the negatives outlined above, Folkestone has served us well over the years. We enjoyed our best ever result from there in 2009 winning NFD. Last year we dropped to second.
With all this in mind we have been actively looking for a better site which improves on the already excellent features of the old site. Thanks to the efforts of Peter G0VVE from RATS we believe we have found such a site. I'll keep the details under wraps for now but CARC members can find out more at club meetings. Operating sites are among the most important aspects of contesting and are very tightly held!
The new site is big, really big! It has much better 'take off' to the UK, is away from any large towns and so RF quiet while still being good for Europe. We will be sufficiently far away from neighbouring competitors that we should not interfere with each other. The site is still in East Kent giving us an important advantage both for DX to Europe and to maximize scores in the UK.
So with the site nicely organised what else is involved in contesting. As with most contests the aim is to work as many other stations as possible in the period of the contest. NFD lasts 24 hours, 3pm on Saturday to 3pm on Sunday (BST). As the name implies all operation must be portable using generators for the power. Equipment can only arrive at the site 24 hours before the start of the contest meaning that all the tents, antennas and stations must be assembled, tested and operating from scratch starting no earlier that 3pm on the Friday afternoon.
Scoring for NFD is very similar to other VHF contests. Each QSO must consist to an exchange of callsigns, signal reports, contact serial number and QRA locator. The locator is used to calculate the distance between the two stations and this is the score for that QSO. Simple! Not quite. To win it is necessary to work a lot of stations (700+) is the best on 2m in 24 hours during NFD. Also these stations need to be at some distance, on 2m a typical AVERAGE distance is around 350km with best DX nearly always at around 1000km under normal flat conditions, it can be much more with favorable conditions.
I've used 2m as an example as that's the band I know best. Clearly you can't achieve this with an FT817 running 3W into a small antenna. Over the years we have assembled a formidable selection of equipment ranging from the trailer towers mentioned earlier to multiple high gain antennas, power amplifiers able to run full legal power at high duty cycles for 24 hours, top of the range transceivers and the substantial generators needed to run them all. Of course we are always looking to improve and keen members normally add a few bits and bobs over the winter. Improvements for this year include a much better receiver for 4m, a even better high performance radio for 2m, another trailer tower bringing our total to 4 between CARC and RATS and probably some new LPA antennas.
This may all sound daunting to the newly licensed amateur and indeed it is a formidable setup. However CARC and RATS unlike many other specialist contest groups actively encourage our new members to join in, learn and enjoy the experience. That is the main purpose of this rambling piece.
What does this mean in practice for a first time participant. Well simply you get the chance to operate a top line station for the price of a share of the petrol needed to run the generators. Well nearly! Of course we hope that you will also help in the preparation and assembly of the stations and antennas in the run up to the contest. Personally I find this as rewarding as the operating itself.
As you might have gathered, VHF NFD requires operation on multiple bands. There are five available to enter, 4m (70MHz), 6m (50MHz), 2m (144MHz), 70cm (432MHz) and 23cm (1296MHz). Some require 24 hour operation, some only 6 hours and others we close down overnight due to lack of activity. The full rules can be found at the RSGB VHF contest committee website http://www.rsgbcc.org/vhf/ . The best scores from four of the five bands go towards the final entry and we have yet to decide on our strategy for this year.
In practice what this means is that we divide into smaller teams to erect and operate the stations. The systems are tried and tested and there is always an experienced contester around to lead the effort and explain how it all works. Once the antennas are up and tested, usually by Friday evening, we turn to assembling the stations. These consist of the transceivers, pre-amps, power amplifiers and rotators controllers. We use computers to log our QSOs, produce real time scores and also to save our voices by acting automated CQ callers when the going gets slower. Typically a station is run by two operators at most times, an operator and a logger. The operator makes the contact, records it on a logging slip while the logger acts as a second pair of ears working with the operator to make sure all the details are copied correctly. They also enter the details into the computer log. Logging is a vital job as an error in the log will result in lost points during adjudication and can make the difference between winning and losing. A good team will also complete a QSO quicker meaning they can move on and work another station. Remember the score is the total number of kilometers worked so the more contacts over the longest distances are important.
Logging is a great way for a newcomer to get the feel for contesting and really contribute to the effort. It gives a chance to experience first hand the varying conditions on different bands. How propagation effects signals over long distances with signals fading and strengthening over time, copying weak signals and the best way to eek out those difficult stations from the background noise. Even experienced operators need to get their ear in and it is quite normal for the team to rotate first as a logger and then onto operating before taking a break and letting others have a go.
As a newcomer you should not expect to open the operating on 2m which can be frantic in the first couple of hours but other bands are not so high pressure and certainly into the evening as the QSO rate slows, anyone who wants to try their hand will be able to do so. Fear not as an experienced logger will be on hand to smooth the way during those first nerve racking contacts.
If you have a look at the VHFCC website, you'll see that NFD might be the biggest contest of the year but it is hardly the only one. There are a whole series of Tuesday evening contests on various bands every week. The club station is equipped for 6m, 2m, 70cm and 23cm. These short 2 1/2 hour contest produce lots of activity and from the club it should certainly by possible to work 50+ contacts in the period. Even a 2m SSB radio from home with a vertical antenna will allow a few contacts to be made. With a horizontal beam this will shoot up even with 10W.
For VHF NFD you don't need to be an individual RSGB member to take part, as long as you're a member of CARC or RATS that's fine. You can also enter all the Tuesday night VHF/UHF Activity contests as well as the 144Mhz and 432MHz AFS contests. To enter all the others listed on the website you will need to be an individual RSGB member. This doesn't of course mean that you can't take part just that you won't be eligble to submit an entry.
During VFD even if you're a foundation license holder you can operate as the callsign we use is G5LK/P which is a club callsign and you will be supervised by a full license holder.
Well that about covers the basics. If you've read this far and are still interested then have a word at the club or alternatively drop me an email to vhf@g0kad.com .
73 and see you on the hill.
Mike
G0KAD
No comments:
Post a Comment